Hot Topics

March 24 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

U.S. stock futures rise; manufacturing in China continues to weaken; Apple and Comcast reportedly in talks over a streaming TV service; Nokia's sale of its mobile phone unit to Microsoft to be delayed; Herbalife nominates 3 Icahn designees to its board.

European shares declined after a eurozone manufacturing survey fell in the first quarter.

2.-- The economic calendar in the U.S. on Monday includes the PMI Manufacturing Index Flash for March at 9:45 a.m. EDT.

3.-- U.S. stocks on Friday closed lower, as investors balanced data showcasing the strength of the economic recovery against the nervousness around a hike in rate guidance from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.17% to 16,302.70 while the S&P 500 declined 0.30% to 1,866.40. Earlier in the session, the benchmark index touched a record intraday high of 1,883.97 before slipping back. The Nasdaq slipped 0.98% to close at 4,276.79.

4.-- Apple (AAPL) is in talks with Comcast (CMCSA) about teaming up for a streaming-television service that would use an Apple set-top box and get special treatment on Comcast's cables to ensure it bypasses congestion on the Web, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The discussions between Apple and Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, are still in the early stages and many hurdles remain, according to the newspaper.

Apple's intention is to allow users to stream live and on-demand TV programming and digital-video recordings stored in the "cloud," effectively taking the place of a traditional cable set-top box, the Journal said.

Apple would benefit from a cable-company partner because it wants the new TV service's traffic to be separated from public Internet traffic over the "last mile"-the portion of a cable operator's pipes that connect to customers' homes, the people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

5. -- Nokia (NOK) said Monday that the sale of its mobile phone unit to Microsoft (MSFT) will be delayed until next month because it is still waiting for approval from regulatory authorities in Asia.

Nokia said the deal for 5.4 billion euros ($7.3 billion), which was announced in September and was expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014, has been approved by the EU and U.S. authorities but "certain antitrust authorities In Asia" were still reviewing the deal.

6. -- Cisco (CSCO) plans to begin offering "cloud" computing service to corporate customers, pledging to spend $1 billion over the next two years to enter a market now led by Amazon, the Journal reported.

Cisco said its spending will go toward building up data centers to help run the new service, called Cisco Cloud Services, which will also rely on computer rooms operated by partners.

The stock rose 1.2% in premarket trading to $21.89.

7. -- Walmart (WMT) said it has rolled out an online tool that compares its prices on 80,000 food and household products -- from canned beans to dishwashing soap -- with those of its competitors, The Associated Press reported. If a lower price is found elsewhere, the discounter will refund the difference to shoppers in the form a store credit.

8. -- Drive-in restaurant company Sonic (SONC) is expected by analysts on Monday to report second-quarter earnings of 6 cents a share.

9. -- Herbalife (HLF) said Monday it will nominate three additional Carl Icahn designees to its board.

Herbalife said earlier this month it would push back the date of its annual shareholder meeting to April 29 from April 24 so it could continue talks with Icahn, the activist investor, about adding his nominees to its board.

Icahn Enterprises owns 17% of Herbalife shares.

Herbalife shares rose 5.1% to $52.07 in premarket trading on Monday.

10.-- Teen science-fiction thriller "Divergent" debuted with $56 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. The opening, while less than some anticipated, launches Lionsgate's third franchise built on young-adult best-sellers. The others are "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games."